Chapter 635 – Opening of the Supermarket Part 1 of 2
In China, August 1st was an important date. But the Super VCD picked this date to be launched was not to honor the Chinese Communist Party. It was because this was the date where Tai Wah Supermarket opens!
Tai Wah Supermarket was initially scheduled in July. But because of some issues with the renovation and tenants, there were some delays with some stores. To ensure all the stores opened on the same day, the opening was postponed.
Fu Guangzheng had suggested renting spaces from existing shopping malls. The cost will be lower, and they could open more supermarkets at the same time.
But Feng Yu rejected this suggestion.
Renting shopping malls might be cheaper initially. But once the supermarket became popular, the malls will increase the rentals. Even if you signed a 10 years contract with the malls, what will you do after 10 years? Move the supermarket to elsewhere? Customers will be lost. Regular customers were critical to a supermarket.
There is another news this year. Fu Guangzheng did not notice it, but Feng Yu caught it. China had announced a reform on the practice of assigning jobs to the graduates. From 1996 onwards, graduates will no longer be assigned jobs. Those graduates will no longer be given higher management positions once they graduate from university, and they will be the same as everyone else!
This was proposed and started in 1992. From 1992, the number of government jobs given to graduates was reducing.
Of course, although it stated that this policy started in 1992, but most of the graduates were still recruited by the state-owned enterprises and government agencies. They will begin as Staff members. But these people were to be trained to be section level ranks. Once they are promoted, they will be deputy section chiefs. Those Master degree holders will be given the position of Section Chief once they enter the government agencies.
On paper, these benefits will be removed, but Feng Yu knew that this will still be ongoing for at least 5 years. Those students that did not get assigned with jobs were those with lousy grads. The ones with above-average grades will be recruited by various agencies. Some of them were even selected before they graduate.
This policy will filter out those lazy students, and those who studied hard will not have to worry. Also, there were more and more private companies, especially in the coastal regions. Many graduates were not willing to enter the government agencies as they could not apply what they learned in school there!
Without job assigning, there were also problems. One of the biggest challenges was the introduction of social insurance. Those that worked for the private companies will no longer be given housing from their companies.
This was good news to the commercial housing. Housing prices might not increase overnight, but they will inevitably rise. Not only private houses, but even commercial buildings prices will also increase. Commercial buildings’ prices rise faster than private housing.
If they were to lease commercial spaces now, then the rental will surely be sky high after the contract ends in 10 years. If they were to buy the shopping malls now, they could still rent it out to others. The value of the malls will increase gradually. Even if the supermarket was not doing well, they could sell off the mall in the future for a profit. Even if they can carry on collecting rents, they will not suffer any losses.
The Chinese economy was still not well developed. Feng Yu might feel supermarkets could do well, but he also did not want to increase the scale so fast. If the returns from this investment are good this year, they can increase their scale next year by getting loans.
None of the 20 hypermarkets storefronts was 100% rented out. There were still many empty stores remaining. But all of them were confident that after the Hypermarkets were opened, there will be people going up to them to rent the spaces.
Fu Guangzheng and Li Zekai were more optimistic than Feng Yu. They firmly believe that this operation model, which was popular in overseas and Hong Kong, will be successful in China. Furthermore, they had started marketing this Hypermarket a long time ago.
Also, they still have not used their most important promotion tool. In another 2 days, Superman Li and Fu Rongbing will be coming to Beijing to meet with the top officials, and it will be reported on the CCTV news. The opening ceremony will also be on the news.
There will be a nationwide TV station giving Tai Hua Supermarket publicity. What’s there to worry about? No other company in China will get such advertising when they open for business. How could they fail?
Of course, CCTV promotion was not enough. They had invited the Provincial Leaders from various provinces to the opening ceremonies. After all, the hypermarkets will bring up the economy in their provinces, and why would those leaders reject this invitation?
At first, they could only invite the City’s leaders. But Fu Guangzheng told the Provincial Leaders that Hong Kong's richest man, Superman Li, and head of Hong Kong’s biggest supermarket chain, Fu Rongbing, will be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Hypermarket headquarters. One of China’s top official will also be attending.
The Provincial leaders did not care if Superman Li will be at the opening ceremony. They have nothing to do with him even if he was Hong Kong’s richest man. But when they heard that one of China’s top official will be there at the opening ceremony, they agreed. What connections and background did this Hypermarket chain have to invite a top official?
The Provincial leaders had to put up a show even if they were unwilling to attend. China’s top official will be attending, and as subordinates, they had to sing the same tune.
Those leaders also realized that this Tai Hua Supermarket might be more profitable than they imagine. This supermarket chain had opened a branch in their city, and it will be good for them too.
This will be some credits which will help in their promotion, and all of them did not want to miss this opportunity.
But these Provincial Leaders were not enough. Since it was the grand opening, then it should be grand!
Feng Yu used his connections to invite guests to the opening of their branches in every province. The distributors and dealers of Tai Hua Trading, the General Manager of Aiwa Pagers, Wind and Rain Electronics General Manager, Lehaha’s Zhong Qingxian, Lenovo’s Liu Chuanzhi, Little’s Tyrant’s Duan Yongping, Tai Hua Agriculture Food Factory’s Zhang Ming, Bing City’s Machinery Company’s Li Mingde and all the branch factories directors, were invited to attend the opening ceremony of their nearest Tai Hua Supermarket branch.
Of course, Li Zekai also invited the Li family’s connections in China to attend. Some of Tai Hua Supermarket’s suppliers and representatives of the brands who had rented stores in the Hypermarket were also invited. Feng Yu checked the name list, and there should be at least 3 prominent figures at each branch for the opening ceremonies. This will surely create hype.
The leaders of each province will attend the opening ceremony and how could the provincial TV station and newspaper not report about this event? This will be a free advertisement for Tai Hua Supermarket.
Currently, Feng Yu was sitting in Deputy Station Chief Jia’s office, discussing the possibilities of making a special episode on Tai Hua Supermarket on the day of opening.
The program was not all about complaining or exposing bad deeds. It will also praise good deeds once in a while. This Supermarket chain was an investment by Hong Kong’s top tycoon, and it was his way of showing his support of Hong Kong’s unification with China. This was worth reporting.
Other than the 7pm news, there will be news aired in different time slots. Can you air more footages of Tai Hua Supermarket during the different time slots? We are so close with each other…… Come on….. Don’t be stingy…..